MORE than 100 people were dead or missing in flash floods and landslides as heavy rains brought by tropical storm Kammuri pounded mountainous northern Vietnam, officials said yesterday.At least 72 people died and 37 were missing since the storm hit the poor and widely deforested region from Friday, having previously lashed Hong Kong and southeastern China, central and provincial emergency officials said.Worst-hit was Lao Cai province near the Chinese border, where at least 36 people died and 32 were missing, hundreds of houses were destroyed or damaged, and transport links were cut, isolating some areas, emergency officials said."Landslides have hit many areas, but flash floods have caused the largest number of deaths," said Pham Van Quang, an official with the provincial flood and storm control committee."It's still raining hard here."At least 800 houses have been destroyed or damaged. We are still trying to get in touch with local authorities to help the people there. Rescue efforts are ongoing but they are being slowed by the severe weather."Quang said that authorities were updating the figures of dead and missing, but that they had no contact with some districts because of cut telephone lines and roads, including the "completely isolated" Bat Xat district.At least 25 people died and four were missing in neighbouring Yen Bai province, said emergency services official Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, who said the Red River that also flows through the capital Hanoi had dangerously swollen."It is still raining heavily and we fear that the number of people killed will continue to grow," an official said. In coastal Quang Ninh, eight people died, including a five-year-old boy whose family home was buried in a landslide, and seven construction workers whose roadside tent was buried under an avalanche of mud and rocks. Three people died in Phu Tho province and one person was missing.Experts from the National Hydrometeorology Forecast Centre predict Vietnam will face more dangerous storms this year due to the La Nina climatological phenomenon. Agencies
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Showing posts with label landslides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label landslides. Show all posts
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Floods, landslides kill 50 in Vietnam, Thailand
Flash floods and landslides have killed 50 people in Vietnam and Thailand, swept away thousands of homes and inundated farmland, official reports said on Sunday.
In Vietnam, the death toll from typhoon Hagupit, which struck the Philippines and China earlier in the week, has jumped to 32 with another five people missing.
Thousands of homes were either washed away or destroyed by heavy rains and landslides in northern Vietnam, the government's storm and flood prevention committee said.
Hagupit, which means "lashing" in Filipino, killed at least eight people in the Philippines and three in China where it triggered a "once-in-a-century storm tide."
Vietnamese soldiers were dispatched to evacuate thousands of people from areas vulnerable to more flash floods and landslides in the mountainous provinces of Son La, Lang Son and Bac Giang.
Heavy rains on Sunday could trigger more landslides in the mountainous north, and flooding along the Thai Binh river, the National Meteorology Center said.
The Red River near the capital Hanoi was expected to reach dangerously high levels on Sunday, rising to 8.6 meters (28 ft), the center said.
Vietnam's main agriculture belt including the coffee-growing Central Highlands region and the Mekong Delta rice basket was not in the storm's path.
In Thailand, the death toll from floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains has risen to 18, while nearly 190,000 people have been treated for water-related illnesses and injuries, the Health Ministry said.
It said there were no major outbreaks of disease since the heavy rains began more than two weeks ago, affecting some 800,000 people in the country of 63 million.
Some 500,000 acres of farmland, most of it rice paddy, has been inundated, affecting roughly 2 percent of the total paddy for the 2008-09 growing season, according the Agriculture Ministry data.
(Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam and Arada Therdthammakun; Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
In Vietnam, the death toll from typhoon Hagupit, which struck the Philippines and China earlier in the week, has jumped to 32 with another five people missing.
Thousands of homes were either washed away or destroyed by heavy rains and landslides in northern Vietnam, the government's storm and flood prevention committee said.
Hagupit, which means "lashing" in Filipino, killed at least eight people in the Philippines and three in China where it triggered a "once-in-a-century storm tide."
Vietnamese soldiers were dispatched to evacuate thousands of people from areas vulnerable to more flash floods and landslides in the mountainous provinces of Son La, Lang Son and Bac Giang.
Heavy rains on Sunday could trigger more landslides in the mountainous north, and flooding along the Thai Binh river, the National Meteorology Center said.
The Red River near the capital Hanoi was expected to reach dangerously high levels on Sunday, rising to 8.6 meters (28 ft), the center said.
Vietnam's main agriculture belt including the coffee-growing Central Highlands region and the Mekong Delta rice basket was not in the storm's path.
In Thailand, the death toll from floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains has risen to 18, while nearly 190,000 people have been treated for water-related illnesses and injuries, the Health Ministry said.
It said there were no major outbreaks of disease since the heavy rains began more than two weeks ago, affecting some 800,000 people in the country of 63 million.
Some 500,000 acres of farmland, most of it rice paddy, has been inundated, affecting roughly 2 percent of the total paddy for the 2008-09 growing season, according the Agriculture Ministry data.
(Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam and Arada Therdthammakun; Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Temple stampede kills at least 133 in India (Roundup)
New Delhi - At least 133 Hindu worshippers were killed and 48 injured in a stampede at a shrine in India's northern state of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday, officials said.
The stampede occurred at the Naina Devi temple dedicated to the goddess Durga, located atop a hill in Bilaspur district, some 320 kilometres north of the national capital New Delhi.
'The state administration can confirm that police teams have counted 133 bodies at various hospitals after the tragedy,' state principal secretary PC Kapoor said by telephone.
Himachal Additional Director General of Police Daljit Singh Manhas earlier said the victims included 40 children and 45 women.
'The death toll could go up as a few more wounded could have succumbed to injuries on the way to local hospitals,' Manhas said.
Authorities said rumours of a landslide and boulders rolling down the hill apparently caused the stampede.
'The rumours created a commotion that sparked the stampede as devotees on the stairway to the temple tried to push their way, causing a collapse of the system of fences,' Kapoor said.
'This panic caused a rush between crowds returning from the temple and those going up to the shrine. People started running here and there.'
He said the death toll was high because panic-stricken people ran in the narrow and congested stairway, trampling children, women, the old and the infirm.
A majority of the victims were from the neighbouring state of Punjab, located some 50 kilometres away.
Tens of thousands of people have been gathering at the temple for the 10-day Sharavan Ashtami fair that began Saturday, which is considered auspicious by the Hindus.
Some survivors recounted the horror they witnessed on the hill slopes.
'Devotees returning from the temple ran into pilgrims coming up. Then people tried to outpace each other to find an escape and tried to jump over the fences,' a witness told news channels.
'Coming under immense human pressure the fences gave way and people fell down the slope. Several women and children, who could not jump the railings and remained on the path, were trampled upon,' he said.
The path leading to the temple wore a tragic look as the bodies of children, women and men lay in slush, some of them clutching offerings for the deity.
Some sweaters and shawls, carried by the pilgrims, and their other belongings lay strewn on the path leading to and out of the temple.
Crying and distraught people frantically searched the pile of bodies to locate their missing relatives.
Heavy rains and lack of coordination amongst the agencies had hampered rescue operations and evacuation of the injured, officials said.
Meanwhile, Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal ordered an inquiry into whether adequate safety provisions were in place at the temple.
He also offered compensation to those injured in the stampede and to the families of those killed.
Temple stampedes are not uncommon in India, where huge crowds gather to pray on auspicious days at complexes where the approach roads and entrances are usually narrow.
There have been at least three fatal stampedes in the country so far during 2008, claiming over 21 lives in Hindu temples in the southern, central and eastern states.
The stampede occurred at the Naina Devi temple dedicated to the goddess Durga, located atop a hill in Bilaspur district, some 320 kilometres north of the national capital New Delhi.
'The state administration can confirm that police teams have counted 133 bodies at various hospitals after the tragedy,' state principal secretary PC Kapoor said by telephone.
Himachal Additional Director General of Police Daljit Singh Manhas earlier said the victims included 40 children and 45 women.
'The death toll could go up as a few more wounded could have succumbed to injuries on the way to local hospitals,' Manhas said.
Authorities said rumours of a landslide and boulders rolling down the hill apparently caused the stampede.
'The rumours created a commotion that sparked the stampede as devotees on the stairway to the temple tried to push their way, causing a collapse of the system of fences,' Kapoor said.
'This panic caused a rush between crowds returning from the temple and those going up to the shrine. People started running here and there.'
He said the death toll was high because panic-stricken people ran in the narrow and congested stairway, trampling children, women, the old and the infirm.
A majority of the victims were from the neighbouring state of Punjab, located some 50 kilometres away.
Tens of thousands of people have been gathering at the temple for the 10-day Sharavan Ashtami fair that began Saturday, which is considered auspicious by the Hindus.
Some survivors recounted the horror they witnessed on the hill slopes.
'Devotees returning from the temple ran into pilgrims coming up. Then people tried to outpace each other to find an escape and tried to jump over the fences,' a witness told news channels.
'Coming under immense human pressure the fences gave way and people fell down the slope. Several women and children, who could not jump the railings and remained on the path, were trampled upon,' he said.
The path leading to the temple wore a tragic look as the bodies of children, women and men lay in slush, some of them clutching offerings for the deity.
Some sweaters and shawls, carried by the pilgrims, and their other belongings lay strewn on the path leading to and out of the temple.
Crying and distraught people frantically searched the pile of bodies to locate their missing relatives.
Heavy rains and lack of coordination amongst the agencies had hampered rescue operations and evacuation of the injured, officials said.
Meanwhile, Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal ordered an inquiry into whether adequate safety provisions were in place at the temple.
He also offered compensation to those injured in the stampede and to the families of those killed.
Temple stampedes are not uncommon in India, where huge crowds gather to pray on auspicious days at complexes where the approach roads and entrances are usually narrow.
There have been at least three fatal stampedes in the country so far during 2008, claiming over 21 lives in Hindu temples in the southern, central and eastern states.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Almost five million left homeless, China says
CHENGDU, CHINA — With the death toll still rising in the Sichuan earthquake, China disclosed that at least four million apartments and homes had been damaged or destroyed in the massive quake, leaving almost five million people homeless.
Strong aftershocks were continuing to rattle the disaster zone Friday, knocking out phone lines and triggering landslides that blocked roads and buried a number of vehicles on a road leading to the epicentre.
The biggest aftershock Friday had a 5.5 magnitude, causing buildings to sway in the city of Chengdu, about 80 kilometres from the quake-damaged region.
About 10 survivors, including a young child and a 23-year-old nurse, were rescued alive Friday after four days in the rubble. Rescue workers could hear weak cries from a few other people in the wreckage. But hope was fading for most of those who were still trapped in the collapsed buildings.
A resident of Beichuan walks away from the ruins Thursday. Villages nearby are short of food, water and medicine. (Jason Lee/Reuters)
The official death toll rose to about 22,000 Friday, an increase of more than 3,000 from the day earlier. The final toll is expected to climb to 50,000 or more. A further 159,000 have been injured.
China has mounted a huge relief effort, with 135,000 soldiers, police and medical staff, along with helicopters that are dropping packages of food and clothing to remote regions that still cannot be reached by road.
Water shortages have become “extremely serious” in Sichuan province, according to Chinese Housing Minister Jiang Weixin. There is no running water in 20 counties and cities in the disaster area, he said.
China's Housing Ministry announced Friday that it is launching an investigation into the collapse of many school buildings in the quake. It vowed to punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction.
Public controversy is still raging in China over the collapse of the school buildings, which killed thousands of children. Nearly 7,000 classrooms were destroyed in the collapsed schools, according to new estimates. Many people believe the schools were shoddily constructed as a result of government corruption. In some cases, the schools collapsed while all other nearby buildings were intact.
Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, the Chinese government officially accepted the help of foreign rescue workers, many of whom have specialized technology and experience in rescuing people from collapsed buildings. A 31-member team from Japan arrived in the quake zone Friday, with special life-detection equipment and sniffer dogs. But the government waited four days before accepting the offer, too late for the vast majority of those who were trapped in the rubble.
Only four countries – Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Russia – were permitted to send their rescue teams to China. An offer of assistance from the Canadian government, which wanted to send the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), was apparently not accepted by the Chinese authorities.
A 10-member team of rescue specialists from a British relief agency, who had arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday, were unable to get permission from the Chinese government to travel to Sichuan Friday.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has been in the earthquake zone since Monday, visiting different sites and consoling the victims and survivors. Friday, he was joined by President Hu Jintao, who told survivors that “we feel your anguish.”
In the badly hit city of Mianyang Friday, Mr. Hu said the relief work has entered its most crucial phase. “The challenge is still severe, the task is still arduous and the time is pressing,” he said, according to the state-owned Xinhua news agency.
About 20,000 earthquake survivors have taken shelter in a sports stadium in Mianyang. Some are sleeping on ping-pong table tops, treadmills and the floors of boxing rings. Volunteers are providing food, medicine and clothing to the survivors.
The stadium itself was slightly damaged in the earthquake. Inside, several volunteers are painstakingly trying to record the names of the survivors so that their relatives can find them.
Strong aftershocks were continuing to rattle the disaster zone Friday, knocking out phone lines and triggering landslides that blocked roads and buried a number of vehicles on a road leading to the epicentre.
The biggest aftershock Friday had a 5.5 magnitude, causing buildings to sway in the city of Chengdu, about 80 kilometres from the quake-damaged region.
About 10 survivors, including a young child and a 23-year-old nurse, were rescued alive Friday after four days in the rubble. Rescue workers could hear weak cries from a few other people in the wreckage. But hope was fading for most of those who were still trapped in the collapsed buildings.
A resident of Beichuan walks away from the ruins Thursday. Villages nearby are short of food, water and medicine. (Jason Lee/Reuters)
The official death toll rose to about 22,000 Friday, an increase of more than 3,000 from the day earlier. The final toll is expected to climb to 50,000 or more. A further 159,000 have been injured.
China has mounted a huge relief effort, with 135,000 soldiers, police and medical staff, along with helicopters that are dropping packages of food and clothing to remote regions that still cannot be reached by road.
Water shortages have become “extremely serious” in Sichuan province, according to Chinese Housing Minister Jiang Weixin. There is no running water in 20 counties and cities in the disaster area, he said.
China's Housing Ministry announced Friday that it is launching an investigation into the collapse of many school buildings in the quake. It vowed to punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction.
Public controversy is still raging in China over the collapse of the school buildings, which killed thousands of children. Nearly 7,000 classrooms were destroyed in the collapsed schools, according to new estimates. Many people believe the schools were shoddily constructed as a result of government corruption. In some cases, the schools collapsed while all other nearby buildings were intact.
Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, the Chinese government officially accepted the help of foreign rescue workers, many of whom have specialized technology and experience in rescuing people from collapsed buildings. A 31-member team from Japan arrived in the quake zone Friday, with special life-detection equipment and sniffer dogs. But the government waited four days before accepting the offer, too late for the vast majority of those who were trapped in the rubble.
Only four countries – Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Russia – were permitted to send their rescue teams to China. An offer of assistance from the Canadian government, which wanted to send the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), was apparently not accepted by the Chinese authorities.
A 10-member team of rescue specialists from a British relief agency, who had arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday, were unable to get permission from the Chinese government to travel to Sichuan Friday.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has been in the earthquake zone since Monday, visiting different sites and consoling the victims and survivors. Friday, he was joined by President Hu Jintao, who told survivors that “we feel your anguish.”
In the badly hit city of Mianyang Friday, Mr. Hu said the relief work has entered its most crucial phase. “The challenge is still severe, the task is still arduous and the time is pressing,” he said, according to the state-owned Xinhua news agency.
About 20,000 earthquake survivors have taken shelter in a sports stadium in Mianyang. Some are sleeping on ping-pong table tops, treadmills and the floors of boxing rings. Volunteers are providing food, medicine and clothing to the survivors.
The stadium itself was slightly damaged in the earthquake. Inside, several volunteers are painstakingly trying to record the names of the survivors so that their relatives can find them.
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